Townsville 500 had it all

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The Townsville 500 had it all this weekend - controversial finishes, the FNQ heat, untested tyre compounds as well as long-format racing.

With big kerbs and a hybrid street circuit layout, Reid Park was always going to deliver spectacular racing, and it didn't disappoint.

The BJR team employed several strategies over the weekend for the No#14 Middy's Supercar entry.

RACE 19 - SATURDAY
Race 19 saw Bryce qualify in P16. The team decided to start on the super softs compound, one of only four cars to do so; the remainder of the pack all started on hards.
The longevity of the super softs on Reid Park was unknown as the half street, half purpose-built, 2.86-kilometre track is known for its tyre degradation ability. It literally eats them up!
Bryce handled the car well and placed mid-pack throughout the entire 88 laps.

The super soft tyres proved effective for the first part of the race, however around the 30-lap mark – it was time to pit and change to Hards. As the race length was 250kms, it was also a requirement to refuel, and a minimum of 2 pit stops was mandatory for both races (19 and 20). Bryce did a great job and finished in P15.

RACE 20 – SUNDAY
Sunday was a new day and Race 20 was another 250kms.

With the fatigue of the previous day setting in the qualifying rounds proved tricky. Bryce ended up qualifying mid-pack in P16 for Race 20. Given that this was the weekend's final race, there was a good chance that the Safety Car would be needed in Race 20, with predictions that there may be some argy-bargy at the start. With this in mind, BJR decided to start Bryce on the Hards, as there would be no advantage to start on the Super Softs if the Safety Car was deployed early in the race. This decision proved to be the right choice, as there was an incident on the opening lap with contact made on Turn 3 between Scott Pye and Will Davison, which saw the need for the Safety Car to control the race.

When the racing got back underway, Bryce once again was in the mix for the entire 88 laps.

The race came down to the wire, with a controversial finish as Van Gisbergen and De Pasquale came to blows with the final secs of the race. Van Gisbergen was ultimately crowned the winner, his second win for the weekend. Bryce had a consistent and positive weekend finishing in P13. And once again, the Indigenous livery gained a lot of attention over the weekend.